Jerry Sanders on Immigration

Supports San Diego as sanctuary city for illegal aliens

San Diego has long been a sanctuary city for illegal aliens. Special Order 6.18 tells SDPD officers not to concern themselves with the immigration status of people they come in contact with. The police order, reportedly authored by Mayor Jerry Sanders
who is the former Chief of Police of San Diego, also claims that illegal aliens don't live in the city's migrant camps such as the infamous McGonigle Canyon. Mayor Sanders and Chief Bill Lansdowne refuse to remove the sanctuary policy from
SDPD regulations.

Not surprisingly, with that "hands off" police policy, most illegal aliens living in San Diego have no fear of police or immigration agents. By some estimates, over 100,000 illegal aliens, mostly Mexican nationals, are "hiding" in
San Diego.

Due to the nationwide "Secure Communities" program, all persons booked into jail in San Diego County are checked for their immigration status and, if found to be here illegally, held by ICE to be returned to their home countries.

Assist Border Patrol, but don't seek immigrant violations

The explosive issue of illegal immigration has crept into the mayoral race between Jerry Sanders and Steve Francis in a debate over whether San Diego police officers should enforce federal immigration laws.

Francis boasts on his campaign Web site that
he would revisit the city's "sanctuary" policy.

In San Diego, police officers do cooperate with the Border Patrol, informing the agency when they arrest someone who is an illegal immigrant. Of course, under the Police Department's policy, it's also
true that officers "shall not make an effort to look for violations of immigration law."

That's a policy that has served this city well. And, as it turns out, it's a policy created by a former police chief who is now mayor:
Jerry Sanders, who refused to let his officers do the job of federal immigration agents. He understood that it was a surefire way of undermining the trust that police officers had built up with immigrant communities.

Source: San Diego Union Tribune Editorial
, May 25, 2008

OpEd: SWAT commander during San Ysidro Macdonalds massacre

It is difficult to accept that Jerry Sanders believes that the Mexican American population of San Diego could ever forget or forgive his role in the massacre that was carried out on July 18, 1984, at the San Ysidro McDonalds restaurant. When the smoke ha
cleared, 22 victims lay dead, and 15 others lay seriously wounded. The majority of the victims were Mexican American children, their mothers, and a few grandmothers. Jerry Sanders, on that day, was the commander of the San Diego Police Departments
SWAT team.

In the aftermath, of the massacre, questions began to surface. Where was the SWAT team and their Commander, Jerry Sanders? Why was their response time so slow? Why did Jerry Sanders rescind the orders, given by the Police Lieutenant
on the scene, for a police sniper to take out [the killer]? Many lives could have been saved. Why did the Commander of the Swat team, who was not on the scene, override the commands of the senior police officer present on the site of the massacre?